Author: BLACK, David
Biography:
BLACK, David (1762-1806: ancestry.co.uk)
Edwin and Emma (Dunfermline, 1814) is attributed by both BL and the Bodleian library to the Rev. David Black of Lady Yester’s, Edinburgh. The poem is not mentioned in any of the contemporary biographical notices of Black and his only other publications were sermons. However, in the absence of any other information about the author of Edwin and Emma, this headnote is about David Black. He was the son of the Rev. David Black (d 1771) of Perth and his wife Jean McVicar and was born on 23 May 1762 and baptised in Perth on 30 May. His maternal grandfather was the Rev. Neil McVicar of the West Kirk who was famous for being one of the only ministers to preach in Edinburgh after Prince Charles and his army arrived in the city in 1745. Black was educated at the University of Edinburgh and licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Perth on 25 Aug. 1784. He was appointed to the parish of St. Madoes near Perth on 15 Sept. 1785 and served there for nine years. On 20 Mar. 1795 at St. Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh, he married Agnes Wood, daughter of George Wood of Warriston; they had six children. On 20 Nov. 1794 he became the minister at Lady Yester’s, Edinburgh. The church was in poor repair and while a new church was built he preached at the chapel of ease, St. Cuthbert’s. Lady Yester’s reopened on 8 Dec. 1805, just two months before Black became ill with a fever. He died on 25 Feb. 1806 and was buried on 3 Mar. at St. Cuthbert’s where there is a tablet to this memory. Black had been involved in establishing the Edinburgh Missionary Society and one of his sermons, preached to the Society, was published in 1803 as The Duty of Seeking the Things which are Christ’s. His Sermons on Important Subjects was published posthumously in 1808 and 1812 with a biographical memoir. (ancestry.co.uk 30 May 2025; David Black, Sermons on Important Subjects [1812]; John Kay, A Series of Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings [1842]) SR